actual _scandalum magnatum_ nearly as bad as Balzac's cool use in his
acknowledged work of the title "Lord Dudley"). This book begins so
well that one expects it to go on better; but the inevitable defects
in craftsmanship show themselves before long. _Le Centenaire_ connects
itself with Balzac's almost lifelong hankering after the _recherche de
l'absolu_ in one form or another, for the hero is a wicked old person
who every now and then refreshes his hold on life by immolating a
virgin under a copper-bell. It is one of the most extravagant and
"Monk-Lewisy" of the whole. _L'Excommunie_, _L'Israelite_, and
_L'Heritiere de Birague_ are mediaeval or fifteenth century tales of
the most luxuriant kind, _L'Excommunie_ being the best, _L'Israelite_
the most preposterous, and _L'Heritiere de Birague_ the dullest. But
it is not nearly so dull as _Dom Gigadus_ and _Jean Louis_, the former
of which deals with the end of the seventeenth century and the latter
with the end of the eighteenth. These are both as nearly unreadable as
anything can be. One interesting thing, however, should be noted in
much of this early work: the affectionate clinging of the author to
the scenery of Touraine, which sometimes inspires him with his least
bad passages.

It is generally agreed that these singular _Oeuvres de Jeunesse_ were
of service to Balzac as exercise, and no doubt they were so; but I
think something may be said on the other side. They must have done a
little, if not much, to lead him into and confirm him in those defects
of style and form which distinguish him so remarkably from most
writers of his rank. It very seldom happens when a very young man
writes very much, be it book-writing or journalism, without censure
and without "editing," that he does not at the same time get into
loose and slipshod habits. And I think we may set down to this
peculiar form of apprenticeship of Balzac's not merely his failure